The focus of this project is to investigate at the molecular level the structural basis of meiotic chromosome metabolism and segregation in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and to compare it to that of the mouse and related mammalian species. A combined cytogenetic and immunochemical analysis is beng used to identify protein components of the synaptonemal complex and to determine their spatial distribution and organization. Methods of isolation and identification by light microscopy are being developed for the yeast synaptonemal complex, as well as for the meiotic spindle apparatus.